The appearance of the Karaims in Lithuania
and the name of Vytautas the Grand Duke of Lithuania are in a close relation.
There are a bunch of poetic works and songs about Vytautas in the Karaim
language in which he is named Vatat Bij (the King crushing his enemies),
about the town of Trakai and the beauty of Lithuania. These highly appreciated,
intimate and even sacred topics have already become symbols to the Karaims.

Vytautas the Great,
a lithograph of 1930.
Photo by Zinas Kazėnas

Vytautas is a descendant of a genuine Lithuanian
duke family. He was the fourth child of Great Duke Kęstutis and is supposed
to be the first-born son of the Great duchess Birutė. In 1370, as the
chronicle of Konrad Bitchin narrates, Vytautas, at the age of twenty,
participated in the battle of Rudava. Consequently, he probably was born
in 1350.

Vytautas grew up in time of incessant battlefields;
therefore the military issues prevailed in his education. Even since 1368,
he started to take the different military fields. In 1379, the personal
seal of Vytautas appeared for the first time.

Vytautas ran away from Lithuania twice and
stayed about four years in Prussia. There he received the education at
the school of life. The State of the Order of the Knights of the Cross,
which existed already for some centuries, was highly influenced by the
West Christian culture and could have had favourable effect upon ingenious
Vytautas. This country contributed to his political intelligence also.

Vytautas was both an ingenious statesman
and an excellent military commander. Often he took part in the battles
himself and never avoided them. In 1392, he finally renounced the union
with the Order of the Knights of the Cross, reconciled himself to the
King Jogaila and the Poles, and commenced to rule not only his patrimony
but also the whole Lithuania.

Feeling sufficiently powerful, he began
pursuing an independent policy in the East. The concept East covers
two directions of feat of arms: the first one -to Russia, and the second
one- to the Tatar territories. In 1390, the cruel ruler of the Middle
and East Asia Tamerlan (Timur) banished the ruler of the Golden Horde
Tokhtamysh who was unable to gain a foothold in the Eastern Europe and
rule over the Russian territories. Tokhtamysh found refuge by Vytautas
and this was how the latter got involved in the internal Tatar war.

In 1397, Vytautas organized a great feat
of arms to the Southeast. And he succeeded: the Azov Horde was beaten
up. Numerous captives were taken and settled in uninhabited territories
of Russia and Lithuania. The next year, Vytautas again set out for the
Tatar Land. It is said that during this feat of arms the distance of 200
miles from Vilnius was covered, that the Tatars yielded themselves captives
and that Vytautas having built a castle from clay in three weeks named
it Johannesburg (Tavan).

The years of 1397 and 1398 are related to
the coming of the Karaims to Lithuania. Since we lack exact historical
information on this subject, it is also unclear where in the Black Sea
region Vytautas could encounter the Karaims. During that time, there occurred
three battles between the Lithuanian army and the Tatars: the first one,
in the year of 1397, in the lands of the Azov Horde, and the second and
third ones, in the year of 1398, near Kaffa (now Feodosia) and Solkhat
(now Staryj Krym).

Vytautas brought the Karaims (several hundred
of families) home as warriors and honest servants. They were settled between
the two castles of the Ruler in Trakai, and in other locations near the
Lithuanian border: Biržai, Pasvalys, Pušalotas, Naujamiestis, Panevėžys.
Vytautas and other rulers of Lithuania expressed their confidence to the
Karaims by affording the privileges to the Karaim communities. The first
preserved document bearing the testimony of the Magdebourg Rights (self-governing)
afforded to the Karaim community descends from the year of 1441. The Grand
Duke Jonas Kazimieras signed it. In possession of the self-governing,
the Karaims were under direct authority of the elected vaitas of Trakai
who possessed administrative and legal power. Vaitas was responsible to
the highest Lithuanian ruler.

The Karaims were loyal to the Lithuanian
rulers, protected their castles, practiced medicine, and worked as translators.
The relationships between the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the Karaims
were always good. This is witnessed by respect of the Karaims towards
Vytautas remained until now and even some kind of Vytautas' cult (narratives,
legends, verses). Many of the Karaims even have a picture of Vytautas
at home. In 1930, during the 500-year remembrance of Vytautas' death in
Lithuania, a Requiem was held in the Vilnius kenesa.